Federal immigration agents blanketed Chicago’s North, Northwest and Near West sides Friday, making immigration arrests in neighborhoods that haven’t been targeted as often as others in the past six weeks of President Donald Trump’s aggressive “Operation Midway Blitz” deportation campaign.
Federal agents smashed one man’s car window outside a family health center where his pregnant partner had an appointment.
Other agents grabbed two construction workers from a house and tear-gassed neighbors on the residential block.
“It was terrifying,” said Autumn Brown, 22, whose apartment windows overlook the Erie Family Health Center in West Town, which provides community resources and a daycare.
That’s where a group of agents in camouflage gear approached a man in his car Friday morning, broke his window and dragged him out. Bystanders said his partner, who is 8 months pregnant, was inside the center. She could be heard yelling that she’s pregnant on videos posted to social media.
“Especially with a daycare, I just keep thinking about the kids and how they had to witness that,” Brown said. “I saw a couple of children at the windows.”
Neighbors and members of a rapid response group were quickly outside blowing whistles to alert the community, trying to stop the agents from taking the man, asking them to produce a warrant and yelling “you can’t do this,” witnesses said.
Kevin Davis, a spokesman for Erie Family Health Centers, said there was a “violent interaction with ICE agents outside here with a member of our community.” Davis said he couldn’t confirm any details about a patient receiving care at the center.
“It’s jarring for members of the community for something like this to happen right here,” Davis said. “We want to make sure, especially as tenants in the community, that the community members feel safe.”
State Rep. Lillian Jimenez said outside the health center that the detention of the soon-to-be father was “unacceptable.”
“This is the definition of kidnapping,” Jimenez said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lake View arrest
About four miles north, in the 3300 block of North Lakewood Avenue in Lake View, federal agents pulled up to a house and approached contract workers.
Four construction workers were sitting on the front porch of the house they were working on when several vehicles carrying federal immigration agents pulled up.
The workers tried to flee to safety. Two managed to find refuge inside, but the other two were arrested.
One of the workers, a 37-year-old man who did not share his name out of fear for his safety, told the Sun-Times his nephew, Eladio Monter de Muñoz, was grabbed by agents as he tried to hide in the garage but couldn’t manage to shut the door in time.
The man suffered multiple cuts and puncture wounds on both arms and hands after he jumped over the fence trying to get away from federal officers.
“There isn’t much I can do about what happened,” said the man as he tried to control the bleeding in his arm. “I just want to make sure my nephew and my coworker are OK.”
In a similar scene to the one outside the health center, a few dozen neighbors quickly gathered outside and shouted at agents and demanded to see a warrant. The agents moved down the street and threw at least two tear gas canisters, scattering the crowd. Witnesses said they didn’t hear a warning before the gas was deployed.
“They’re not obstructing the vehicles, they’re not jumping on the cars, nobody has weapons,” Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) said. “They’re using their First Amendment rights to use their voices, and tear gas was deployed, without warning, in violation of every order that has been issued.”
Tear gas lingered in the air more than an hour later on the otherwise quiet residential block, and an empty canister was by a curb in the street.
Lawson said this is the first time his office has received these types of confirmed reports of arrests in his ward.
Contributing: Ashlee Rezin, Anthony Vazquez
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